Zoom settings for Music Lessons (update)

Zoom likes to keep us on our toes. This is a quick guide on setting your sound for Zoom for your music lessons! Original Sound for Musicians and using headphones!
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[@ropeyarn]

I just finished Zoom audio settings for my wife, a piano instructor. I had the upstairs computer hosting a session with my downstairs computer. I found the settings to be different even though both were demonstrating for the other. First I turned on Original Sound for Musicians on both machines. You could now easily hear room sounds on both computers. For the host however, no headphones and Echo Cancellation Off. The student with headphones, Echo Cancellation ON and in Advanced Audio Settings, Echo Cancellation: Aggressive. With those settings the student still heard some echo, but it was reduced to reverberation and being able to listen to myself over the headphones was nice. The Microphone Volume Level is a bit of a mystery. Set the level manually before activating the Automatic Microphone Level button. Set the Microphone Input level for the minimum necessary for clarity and not for full modulation. This helps with the Echo heard over the headphones. All the audio settings seemed available during the session so I left the settings window open during the session as I tweaked the settings on both machines. I hope this helps someone.

[@ilenehirsch2208]

Thank you so much! It's the only video I found that's right on the money and gets to the solution quickly. I played ukulele for a friend and only the fingerpicking parts came through, not the strumming. This fixed the issue.

[@gailmariage5318]

Thank you so much. I teach piano online and can't hear my student from England very well at all. This will help. What is that instrument. I love it.

[@gailmariage5318]

I have had more success, but still not hearing a couple of students 100% of the time. This has helped my students to hear me better.

[@yuggothproductions]

It’s confusing because the previous version if it said original sound was on it meant it was off! So the “on” meant press to turn on! Glad they fixed this 🤪

[@NyckelharpaUK]

Yup, they did change the wording a few versions ago. This change was to add the words “for musicians “ lol!!

[@capitalcosmico7]

Thank You so much for the set up info, I Will try it this way! 👍🙏

[@LisaLewak]

Thank you. So clear. Easy to follow instruction. Was able to make it happen on my zoom. Cheers

[@niantre368]

after searching so many videos and posts, i finally got my audio working with your video! i was racking my brains because i already set "Original Sound for Musicians" through the menu (2:53) but never noticed there was an option to turn it on during the meeting at 3:00! what a terrible UI design!! why would you think I want it turned off by default when I turned it on in the settings! (breathe, breathe...) anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to post this! 🙏 in zoom for windows under "Advanced" settings, there is a "Signal processing by Windows audio device drivers" that I also set to "Off".

[@shanamartin4266]

Zoom seems to have no musician specific setting for musicians (1 yr later). Do you have any updates about how we can optimize for music lessons these days?

[@lynnroxy9500]

Thank you!!! 👏🏼

[@juannavarromusic]

LOVE THIS! IT HELPED ME SOOO SOOO MUCHHHH GOD BLESS YOUUUU!!!

[@claudestein9418]

Thank you

[@vanessarichardson3034]

Thank you for your video very helpful! However if I want to share sound with someone in the room with me do you have any suggestions apart from share headphones?

[@NyckelharpaUK]

If you’re playing music and have original sound on you definitely need headphones at one end. If you can toggle original sound on and off then that will help.

[@noaharpaz]

Thank you 🙂

[@claudestein9418]

Thank you for this video, and thank you for sharing your beautiful instrument and playing. Here is my question: How should the student set things up if I would like to hear him/her singing along with background tracks (karaoke). I would like to hear both the track, and the singer. Many thanks.

[@NyckelharpaUK]

You could get them to share sound. We do it this way for dances if there is no live band. The caller shared the music to dance to and then calls on top. It works fine. I’d need check, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work if they were singing and had original sound for musicians turned on. I need to do an updated video as things have moved on a bit from this version!

[@JeffJacobsonMusic]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@wileywork2571]

I applied these zoom settings and they worked great. My teacher could hear me playing piano very fine. Should she have the same settings? I think Don below just answered that question. But, I don't understand the headphones. Nobody can hear me play at all when phones are plugged into the piano. thanks for the input. Blessings

[@NyckelharpaUK]

If your teacher is playing then they do need the same settings. If they’re not then they don’t. But you both need to wear headphones if you are both using original sound. The piano needs to be using it’s speaker (it’s an electric piano?) don’t plug anything into the piano Headphone socket. The headphones are for you to listen to zoom coming from the computer.

[@BatteurSansLimite]

Hi, thank you so much! I can see the signal of my instrument and my voice in Zoom, and if I record a test I can hear everything. But for some reason during the live I can't hear neither my voice (external microphone plugged in my audio interface with an XLR cable) nor my instrument (electronic drums plugged in my audio interface with a jack cable). Any idea how I could fix that? Thanks a lot!

[@NyckelharpaUK]

It sounds like the problem might a setting on the audio interface. Have you set up the monitoring on the audio interface? (as opposed to setup in the zoom preferences)

[@alwaysflushinpublic]

Is it my laptop or when she played the tune the 2nd x it sounded no different than the 1st?

[@taherafazal9968]

1) How to use KZbin karaoke on zoom. 2) How to sing duet on zoom by screen sharing lyrics from KZbin?? Much appreciated. If I can get some guidance

[@NyckelharpaUK]

Hello! I'll do a new guide that can talk about some of these things. There have been quite a lot of changes in Zoom. So it's time for me to do a new guide video!

[@pallavisreetambraparni6995]

Very helpful

[@judyrafat]

Could a sound of cutting out on piano and voice have to do with my internet - I have 100 Kb and I noticed doing a course that people could not hear me singing or playing piano.

[@NyckelharpaUK]

There is the chance there is a setting in the computer that needs changing too. I have had that. In the audio settings make sure that echo cancellation is off

[@IanAgard]

Thank you!

[@spiral_path]

I tried this drumming with a friend but the mic on my laptop was sending their voice out of my laptop and echoing it back to them. Anyone know a way around that other than me plugging in headphones? Thanks, the rest of this works great

[@NyckelharpaUK]

I'm afraid that you're going to need the headphones.

[@spiral_path]

@@NyckelharpaUK thank you, wow that was a quick reply. OK I can live with that and you've saved me looking for a way around it. Also, I love Nyckelharpa (and tagelharpa). Thanks again

[@ascenjoe]

Is this different fir Chromebook users? My students are having problems finding original sound.

[@NyckelharpaUK]

I'm afraid that I don't have a Chromebook so I can't really say. But I think I need to do an update to this video as there will have been more updates since this point. Does it not show up in the preferences > Audio? Can you get a screenshot of what your students can see? Do you have a Chromebook?

[@judyrafat]

Is this the same for singing?

[@NyckelharpaUK]

Not sure about that. I should test it. It’s possible that yes, it’s the same.

[@FreeDom-fv8wy]

Will this allow multiple people to sing as well?

[@NyckelharpaUK]

I'm afraid that there will always be delay, so no I'm afraid not. This guide is for having lessons where one person plays and listens and vice versa. But playing at the same time isn't possible. (unless one person is muted or can ignore the time delay!)

[@FreeDom-fv8wy]

@@NyckelharpaUK I actually don't care about the delay. I'm using it for vocal toning so it sounds like a group can tone at the time!?

[@NyckelharpaUK]

If the other people are wearing headphones and use the original sounds for musicians then I would say absolutely yes. 🥳

[@FreeDom-fv8wy]

@@NyckelharpaUK yay. Thanks. Are regular headphones ok

[@NyckelharpaUK]

Yes, the one thing you need to watch out for is to make sure the microphone can’t hear anything from the headphones.

[@b.dood_]

Are these settings found on windows version? You are using Mac OS

[@NyckelharpaUK]

I am on a Mac. The settings in zoom should look the same though. (I think)

[@kevinschannel]

Even though I have the same settings, Zoom is still entirely unusable for music because my microphone keeps cutting off instrument sounds. I tried everything but nothing worked. Is there anything you can do to help?

[@NyckelharpaUK]

Have you looked in the computer settings? On some computers there is also noise cancelling on the actual computer settings. Are you Mac or pc?

[@kevinschannel]

@@NyckelharpaUK mac

[@kevinschannel]

@@NyckelharpaUK my settings are exactly the same

[@kevinschannel]

@@NyckelharpaUK im having this issue for weeks

[@NyckelharpaUK]

So, in system settings go and have a look and see in the audio part if there is any echo cancellation going on in the Mac itself. I’m on Mac too. I use an interface that overrides that. But if you’re just using a usb mic that might be a cause of the problem.

[@IsabelDoerfler]

Thank you ❤